Rufus is slowly turning into a city loving pooch. At the back end of last year, we started braving the train into trips into Birmingham to try and suss out all the dog friendly places we can. After a few trips into Birmingham, last week decided to check out dog friendly Boston Tea Party in Edgbaston.

Boston Tea Party kindly invited us to check out it’s Pinterest dream cafe. Located just at the top of Broad Street, it was around 15 minute walk from New Street station [perfect to tire out little dogs]. Easy to find, we were greeted by the very welcoming staff who happily showed us to our table.

Every year I tell myself that I’m going to be more organised and that I’m going to all the Christmas shopping done before the 1st December. I never ever do and this year is no exception, and it’s even harder with looming wedding invoices slowly building up and the most expensive time of year. I struggle with Christmas presents; it’s a mix of wanting to not just spend money for the sake of spending it and not knowing what to get. But, ther’es one thing I’m really good at buying for; dogs and their dog obsessed humans.

So, here’s what you will find in both mine and Rufus’ Christmas stockings this year

Rufus is very much the number one thing in my life and my weekends, evenings and everything else in between fall around my diva princess’ commands. This also means there isn’t many places where he isn’t tip-tapping behind me; whether it’s going out for dinner, drinks, my parents house and the adventures we go on together.

This also means it’s essential that I have everything that I need for him for all weathers. Introuducing my favourite thing that my two of my favourite companies have created: a Radley x Dog Trust Nylon Walking backpack. A contemporary black nylon bag, which is perfect for the girl who only wears black, but the inside full of the Dogs Trust yellow lining which really makes me pop. It’s the perfect bag for all pooch adventures.

This is something that’s sat pretty strange with me ever since I bought Rufus home a little over 2 years ago.

I do not call myself a Dog Mum.

People find it strange that I don’t give myself this title, and neither does my partner. It was never a conversation that we had or an active decision we made when Rufus first entered our lives. But, when people referred us as Rufus ‘parents’ or his ‘Mum’ or ‘Dad’. We just looked looked at each other and awkwardly smiled at each other thinking I have no idea how to comprehend it.

It was a weird thing that just never, ever sat with us right. Pottering around the house, if we tell Rufus to go to either of us, we’ve always used our own names. It’s something that I’ve tried and I’ve always found quite strange that it has never sat naturally with me.

We attended Dog Fest last month and I finally got my hands on a PitPat. A PitPat is effectively the dog version of a Fitbit where the dog wears it on their collar and it monitors their activity. The PitPat is a light weight monitor, weighing in 12g, secured by a piece of magic velcro. Once secure to your dog, you simply download the PitPat app for your phone, connect the monitor and the app via bluetooth and set your pooch up a profile. Dependent on their breed, age and weight it’ll calculate how much exercise your dog needs per day. I’ll state this now – it doesn’t track the dogs actual whereabouts and has no GPS features.

If there is anything that helps my mental health and soul, it’s walking my dog surrounded by water.

I keep referring to this negative space I’ve been in recently, and I’m slowly coming out the other side. I’ve noticed I’m happiest when I’m out with Rufus and we’re somewhere different than our usual walking spots. There’s just something lovely seeing his nose twitch and getting all excited and sniffing all those new smells.

On a Sunday morning, I decided to head over to Priorslee Lakes with my camera and my hound. Priorslee is only a 20 minute drive away from my house and just on the outskirts of Telford in Shropshire. Just off Junction 4 on the M54, Priorslee has a huge lake and it’s the perfect dog walk and wildlife spot.

At the end of June, The Geek, Rufus and I, along with 2 friends, headed down to DogFest South on the Sunday for a day of pooches, blogging and sunshine. Unfortunately, we missed DogFest last year so it was my definite dog related thing to do this year. So, on the Sunday we packed up Paulo the Polo and headed down the M1 for the day.

Rufus has been part of the Blogger & The Geek household for just over 2 years now and we’ve tried and tested a lot of products in that time. We’ve had some down right rubbish ones and we’ve tried some great, luxurious brands through our little dog blog.

But, what do we really stick too? I thought I’d compile the list of the products I keep on buying and ones I’m happy we’ve invested in. As much as I love to treat Rufus, it’s always a conscious thought that really all he requires to be happy is his favourite food, adventures and a cuddle on the sofa. Not being a fool for consumerism, I try and focus on the adventures we go on as much as we possibly can.

With the summer fast approaching, we’re hoping that there are going to be a few sunny spells for us to sit outside and enjoy the sunshine. As much as us humans love summer, it’s super important that Rufus is well looked after in the sun too.

Having a little black dog, it’s a nightmare when there’s a little bit of sun. With a thick double coat, Rufus can get hot pretty quickly no matter if he’s just been trimmed at the Groomers or not. So, we try and take summer as lazily as we can in our household so he still enjoys the summer but not getting overheated. Unfortunately, in the warm weather beach trips are off limits for us but there’s still ways how we can enjoy the sunshine without a sandy shore.

Since I have started wedding planning I have become so much more aware of the flowers around me, especially with Spring. We’re having an end of March wedding and I want the venue covered in all the spring flowers; daffodils, pansies, tulips, forget-me-not and of course, bluebells!

I love following my favourite dog blogs and seeing what my favourite internet pooches are up to on Instagram. a lot of our friends are professional photographers and were offering photos with bluebells. I decided to get outside with Rufus on Good Friday and try snapping our own shots in the forest of blue!